Paper No.

: 11 Ecological Anthropology: Cultural and Biological Dimensions

Module : 13 Shifting Cultivation

Development Team

Principal Investigator Prof. Anup Kumar Kapoor

Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi

Dr. K. R. Rammohan
Paper Coordinator
Department of Anthropology, Sikkim University, Sikkim

Ms. Sangay Diki Bhutia & Dr. K. R. Rammohan

Content Writer Department of Anthropology, Sikkim University, Sikkim

Prof. A. Paparao
Content Reviewer
Department of Anthropology,
Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati
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 Description of Module

Subject Name Anthropology

Paper Name Ecological Anthropology: Cultural and Biological Dimensions

Module
Shifting Cultivation
Name/Title
Module Id 13

Contents:
1. Introduction
 The definition of shifting cultivation
 Process of shifting cultivation
 Geographical location
1. 2. Shifting cultivation and its changes in china
2.1 Theoretical background
2.2 The main causes of change of shifting cultivation
2. 3. Shifting cultivation in India
3.1 Basic features of shifting cultivation
3.2 Causes of shifting cultivation
3.3 Effects of shifting cultivation
3. 4. Shifting cultivation (jhum) in Nagaland, Northeast India
Summary

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Anthropology
 Learning Objectives:
 This module will enable to clear the concept of Shifting Cultivation
 This module will equip the students with certain theoretical aspects of Shifting
cultivation
 This module highlights about the shifting cultivation practices in China and India with
reference to North Eastern India
 This module explains the changing nature of Shifting Cultivation

1. Introduction
The definition of shifting cultivation
It is widely accepted that shifting cultivation is an agricultural system characterized by a rotation of
fields rather than of crops. Shifting cultivation is a way of discontinuous cropping in which periods of
fallowing are typically longer than periods of cropping. Shifting cultivation typically has a way of
clearing the fields, generally termed as ‘swiddens’ through the use of slash-and-burn techniques.
Shifting cultivation is known by a variety of terms (including field-forest rotation, slash and burn, and
swiddening)
It is reported that shifting cultivation is widespread throughout the humid tropics, but was also
practiced in temperate Europe until the nineteenth century (and sometimes later) (Conklin, 1962). It is
estimated that there are over 250 million shifting cultivators world-wide, with 100 million in South-
East Asia alone. Shifting cultivation is enormously heterogeneous and subtypes can be distinguished
according to crops raised, crop associations and successions, fallow lengths, climatic and soil
conditions, field technologies, soil treatment and the community’s mobility of settlement. It is
understood that in all shifting cultivation systems, the burning of cleared vegetation is critical to the
release of nutrients, which ensures field productivity.
Shifting cultivation is the practice of bringing into agriculture previously uncultivated land for several
seasons followed by abandonment as part of a human nomadic culture. It is increasingly recognized
that the traditional shifting cultivation practiced by traditional and indigenous communities,
particularly in the tropics, represents a sustainable form of agriculture that is well adapted to natural
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 and semi natural ecosystems, most notably in the rain forests. Far from proving an inefficient or
wasteful form of agriculture, as was once thought, shifting cultivation is now regarded by many
scientists and grass root environmentalists as the least harmful to the environment and to the diversity
of wildlife.
Operationally, shifting cultivation can be defined as a system of agriculture under which plots of land
were cultivated for a limited period without the application of manure until crop yields declined. The
land was then abandoned and left to revert to forest with new plots being cleared. This is believed to
have been one of the main forms of agriculture in Neolithic Europe and was characteristic of marginal
forest areas into medieval times. It survived in North Scandinavia into the early 20th Century and is still
used in the tropics, though on a much smaller scale than formerly. Shifting cultivation is known as
Ladang in Malaysia and Indonesia, Milpa in central America, Chitenmene in parts of Africa, Jhum/
Kumri in India and Chena in Sri Lanka.

Rath (2015) defines Shifting cultivation as “any continuing agriculture system in which impermanent
clearings are cropped for shorter periods in years than they are allowed to remain fallow, it is also
defined as an agricultural system which is characterized by ‘slash and burn’ and by short period of
cropping alternating with long fallow periods”.
It is an agricultural system which is characterized by a rotation of field rather than a crop, by a short
period of cropping alternating with long fallow periods of cropping and clearing by means of slash and
burn. It is also a labour intensive and land extensive process of cultivation. Its origin is traced to as far
back as the Neolithic period between the years 1300 to 3000 B.C. It occupies a distinct place in the
tribal economy and constitutes a vital part of the lifestyle and socio-economic set-up of hill and tribal
regions. This form of cultivation is regarded as a distinct stage in the evolution of agriculture (Ninan,
1992).
It is understood that Shifting cultivation is the most primitive among all types of agriculture. The
variety of soil, climate and vegetation is responsible for many types of agriculture in the world. The
development of agriculture has passed through two distinct lines: plains cultivation and hills
cultivation. Shifting cultivation falls in the later category, this system of cultivation has been
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 considered to be the most ancient, dating back to the Neolithic period between the years 13,000 to
3,000 B.C. It is a distinctive type of agriculture practiced at a primitive level of operation under certain
environmental constraints.

According to Verrier Elwin, shifting cultivation is a stage in the evolution of human culture and almost
all the races have resorted this practice in some stage or the other. Shifting cultivation occupies a
distinct place in the tribal economy; it constitutes a vital part of the socio-economic network of the
tribal life particularly the hill tribal economy, which is regarded as the principal source of livelihood.
Shifting cultivation is an ancient system of agriculture, in which a patch of hill is cleared through fire
and is cropped through rotation. Therefore the shifting cultivation is also known as “field forest
rotation” or “slash and burn” agriculture as it always involves the impermanent agriculture use of plots
produced by cutting hacks and burning of vegetatation cover. Shifting cultivation is a process which
consists of cutting of trees on tops and slopes of hills, burning the fallen trees and bushes and dibbling
or broadcasting seeds in the ash covered soil. Goods crops are harvested for the first two or three years
at a diminishing rate and then the land is abandoned leaving only ‘bald hills’ devoid of any economic
or ecological importance. Then a new clearing is opened for fresh cultivation. The cultivation is thus
shifted from one patch of land to another abandoning one after another bringing large scale devastation
of soil fertility and vegetation (Rath, 2015).

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 Fig 1: slash and burn cultivation/ Jhum cultivation
Source: https://commons.wikkimedia.org

SHIFTING CULTIVATION
Process of shifting cultivation
The meaning of the shifting cultivation is discussed in the above paragraphs. In the hill slopes the
practice of shifting cultivation using slash and burn method is typical of aboriginals. They periodically
cut down the forest trees and burn them in order to clear an area for planting. The ash thus collected is
spread on the entire patch of land which works as manure, afterwards the seeds are dibbled in the soil.
On this land crops are raised for one to three years and after the fertlity of the soil diminishes and when
the soil is unable to support any crops further, the field is abandoned to get recouped naturally.
Naturally cultivation is shifted to another land and the cultivator returns to the original plot after the
soil regains its fertility (Rath, 2015).

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 Geographical location
Shifting cultivation takes on its most characteristic forms in regions which have one or more seasons of
copious rain, alternating with shorter periods when little or no rainfalls. In such places relative
humidity remains high throughout the dry season. In such climate the natural vegetation is rain forest.
The shifting cultivation extends beyond the limits of the rain forest across a marginal zone covered
with similar vegetation (Whittlesey, 1937).
Shifting cultivation is practiced with variations throughout the tropical and sub- tropical regions of the
world. It is also practiced by the pre-historic man. The primitive communities of 63 countries in Africa,
Asia, South America and Central America follow this practice of agriculture. Shifting cultivation is
practiced by a number of tribes in the world. The Yuruba of Congo Basin, the Bemba of Northern
Rhodesia, the Yao of Southern Nyasaland, the Malaysians of Solomon Islands, the Boro of Western
Amazon Forest, the Bakairi Indians of Upper Xingu Region in South America, Hill tribes of North
Borneo and Veddah of Ceylon are few examples of tribes who are still practicing this primitive form of
cultivation (Rath, 2015).

2. Shifting cultivation and its changes in China

In the 1980s shifting cultivation in China became a hot issue, it became the subject of debate among
national and international scholars, along with the questions such as what shifting cultivation really
was, and whether or not it destroyed forests. During 1970s and 1980s there was serious rainforest
destruction in Asia, Africa and South America for the greed of timber shown by enterprises based in
developed countries. While forest destruction became a global environmental issue, the indigenous
people who lived in this forest and their shifting cultivation has become a subject of close attention by
scholars around the world.
Shifting cultivation has a very long history in China; with the loss of forest area the practice of shifting
cultivation diminished. With the end of the Cultural Revolution in the mid 1970s, international ideas
became popular and the people began to pay more and more attention to environmental problems.
However the ethnic minorities living in the Southwest of Yunnan Province continued the practice of
shifting cultivation and they are blamed for destroying forest.
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 2.1 Theoretical background
Marxist ethnic theory
This theory was followed and practiced well in China: with the motive of social development which
can be found in relationship between productive forces and society’s need for production. The history
of social development reflects five kind of social evolution: among them is that affecting shifting
cultivators. According to this theory, shifting cultivation refers to the productive forces of primitive
society, so there is compulsion for change, which the superior societies must have transformed or
replaced.
This gives rise to a number of questions: why do the productive forces of a primitive society continue
to exist without change? Why do ethnic minorities living in mountain areas still choose shifting
cultivation for their livelihood? Is it appropriate, for most of the natural scientists and anthropologist to
prove that shifting cultivation is backward and primitive, but neglect the points of view of indigenous
people?
Agricultural evolution theory
There are three distinct periods in the evolution of agriculture, beginning with primitive shifting
cultivation, moving to hoe farming and to cultivating the soil with ploughs. Therefore, in the mountain
areas of Southwestern Yunnan province, we can find ‘living fossils’ where indigenous people still
practice shifting cultivation.
In primitive societies people would have used knives and axes and other tools made of stones for
shifting cultivation. Today, indigenous people not only use iron and steel knives for shifting
cultivation, but they also use hoes and ploughs made from iron and steel for farming.

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 Fig 2: The Evolution of Agriculture
Economic- cultural theory
This theory refers to the synthesis created by people who live in the same physical conditions and at a
similar level of social development. It is difficult to fix the boundaries between different economic-
cultural typologies referred to the synthesis created by people who live in the same physical conditions
and at a similar level of social development.The question then arises: is the type of shifting cultivation
determined by environment or physical conditions?
Cultural ecology (1940s) and ecological anthropology (1970s)
In traditional societies, the focus was mainly upon the livelihood of the people and their adaptation to
their living environment. The ability of human beings to adopt is an effective means of defining the
relationship between people living in a small-scale society and their natural environment.
The disadvantage of this ‘ecological adaptation’ rule is that it cannot measure the characteristics of a
society that is, or has been, strongly impacted by the decisions of the country’s government, or by the
demands or fluctuations of the market.(Yin, 2015).

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 2.2 The main causes of change of shifting cultivation
The ideology of the state
Shifting cultivation is regarded as the productive force of a primitive society. In China, people use
advanced productive force to replace primitive ones, which is the only one direction beyond the
primitive society towards a socialist society.
Government policies
To change and replace shifting cultivation, the central government has implemented a number of
policies, law and regulations to forbid shifting cultivation.
Social reform
The implementation of a socialist transformation by using its administrative system to replace
traditional social organization and cultural systems, resulted in traditional production and living
systems to lost their balance.
Population growth
The population of ethnic minorities living in mountainous areas of Yunnan Province has tripled, over
the past 60 years. With the increase in the number of individuals the relationship between the
population and use of the land has become uneasy, so it is difficult for minority groups to continue
shifting cultivation.
Market economy
Along with other reforms and policies the central government of China is paying close attention to
developing the market economy. In order to pursue economic interests, most ethnic minority groups
started planting rubber and other cash trees such as tea and various fruits. As a result, shifting
cultivation is disappearing quickly.

3. Shifting cultivation in India

Shifting cultivation is commonly known as Jhum cultivation in India. The practice is similar to the
form of shifting cultivation like other countries from the different corners of the world. It occupies a
distinct place in the tribal economy of India. Many studies on shifting cultivation in India have been
conducted by different institutions and researchers. In India shifting cultivation is largely found in the
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 states of Andhra Pradesh, the hill districts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha and Tripura.

3.1 Basic features of shifting cultivation

(Rath, 2015) has classified the basic features of shifting cultivation as:

1. This system of cultivation is practiced mainly by simpler cultures and small population but
occasionally used by almost anyone for whom the cropping system appears expedient.
2. Human labour is the chief input, and a few simple hand tools are used in the cultivation.
3. Labour pattern frequently cooperative, but involving many variations in working group
structure.
4. Clearing of fields primarily by felling, cutting, slashing and burning, and using fire to dispose
of vegetative debris after drying.
5. Frequent shifting of cropped fields, normally in some kind of sequence in land control, resting
in special social groupings under customary law, but sometimes occurring under other legal
institutions of land control.
6. Many different systems in crop planting in given fields but both multiple cropping and
specialized cropping present.
7. Use of crops primarily for subsistence but exchange pattern may reach total sale of whole
product.
8. Field per acre and per hour of man normally compared with those of permanent field
agriculture within regions in which comparison is properly made but yields are often below
those of mechanically powered permanent field agriculture.
9. Use of vegetable cover as soil conditioner and source of plant nutrient for cropping cycle.
10. When the system is efficiently operated soil erosion is not greater than soil erosion under other
systems that are being efficiently operated.
11. Details of the practice vary depending upon the physical environment and cultural milieu.

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 12. Destruction of natural resources only when operated inefficiently and not more inherently
destructive than other systems of agriculture when these are operated inefficiently.
13. A residual system of agriculture largely replaced by other systems except when retention of
practice is expedient.
14. Transiency of residence common but not universal, with many patterns of residence according
to the evolutionary level or detailed system employed and preference of culture group.
15. Operaed chiefly in the regions where more technologically advanced systems of agriculture
have not become economically or culturally possible or in regions where the land has not yet
been appropriated by people with greater political or cultural power

Fig 3: characteristics of Shifting Cultivation

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 3.2 Causes of shifting cultivation
In India the practice of shifting cultivation is not an abnormal one, as it is the main means for the
survival of the indegenous tribes. As Rath, (2015) mentioned that the “primitive method” is the only
negative factor and it is further differentiated as absolute, induced and accused.
I. Absolute: under this category the tribals carry on the practice as an age old tradition, the tribes
like Bonda, Didayi, Sora and Kandha are practising shifting cultivation as an age old tradition.
II. Induced: the outside unscrupulous money lenders volunteer to lend money to the tribals and
induce them to carry on with an understanding, take a lion’s share of the produce as “interest”.
The outstanding capital remains as heavy burden on the tribals and also ultimately engages the
tribals as “bonded labourers”.
III. Accused: under this category some of the antisocial elements exercise their unauthorized
influence to lure the Adivasis with a false hope to record the land in the name of the cultivator.
But ultimately the cultivator is being accused as an offender.

3.3 Effects of shifting cultivation

Economic and social impacts of shifting cultivation are viewed differently by different groups. As
shifting cultivation damages forest, this practice is ruinous and wasteful, dries up the spring in the hills
which causes soil erosion: destroy valuable forests, affects rainfall and deprives the people the benefit
of forest and forest produce. Shifting cultivation upsets the accumulated natural resources by removing
more from it than that it can produce.
The evil effects of shifting cultivation have been summed up by Mr Harries, Agency Commissions of
Madras in 1918 (Rath, 2015).
1. It causes springs below the hills to dry up.
2. Causes the soil below the land to be washed away.
3. Ruins valuable timber for the sake of much less valuable crops of gain.
4. Causes the hot weather supplies in these rivers to diminish and this reduces the water available
for second crop cultivation.
5. Causes very heavy floods in the rivers and endangers life and property.
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 6. It brings down heavy silt in to tanks and makes them useless to fields and destroys crops.

Thus the main effects of shifting cultivation are deforestation, soil erosion, diminished rainfall,
silting up of the river channel, stream bed and reservoirs and deterioration of the climate of a
region. It creates a bad impact on the forest ecosystem, as the forest ecosystem consists of major
components like atmosphere, climate, soil and its living organisms. As the living organism (plants
and animals) maintain a balance between carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere. This
balance is disturbed as the tribes set fire to the forest for clearing the ground for the purpose of
cultivation which result in increase of the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and it also
generate poisonous gas in the region by large scale destruction of plants and trees.
The seminar conducted on Socio- Economic Problems of Shifting Cultivation held at Shillong on
June 18, 1976 provided a session on the general problem of shifting cultivation, where some
participants stated that “shifting cultivation” as “necessary evil” and concentrated on speculations
as to how the evil could be removed or at least tempered with the civilizing influence of green
revolution. If it is not taken into consideration then problems like soil erosion, deforestation and
consequent ecological imbalances might occur. It was further stated that low productivity, absence
of agricultural surplus, primitive technique of production and hence non- industrialization were the
inevitable results of shifting cultivation (Majumdar, 1976).

4. Shifting cultivation (jhum) in Nagaland, Northeast India

The traditional agricultural system which is practiced by the people of Nagaland is shifting cultivation.
It is believed that due to this practice the forest area are destructed which creates the problem of
erosion of topsoil.
Many research studies are conducted in Nagaland in order to adapt to better agricultural practices to
prevent climate change. One of the misconceptions about jhum is that it converts primary forest to
agricultural land, it cumulatively reduces the forest cover and its environmental threats extend as far as
loss of biodiversity. In reality, jhum farmers use and reuse the same areas of land when a cropping
periods ends, the particular plot is abandoned and farmers move to another plot that has been used
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 before. But it has to be fallowed for long enough to have rejuvenated the soil nutrients under secondary
forest.
Studies were conducted in the years from 2002 to 2007, set out to determine how jhumming was
affecting Nagaland’s forest cover. The results of the studies in the villages where the research was
conducted, was that in some villages the primary forests which are converted for agricultural uses
occurred around 100 years ago or even longer. Since then, their primary forests have remained intact.
In some villages, the most recent conversion of primary forest for jhum cropping occurred between 41
and 50 years ago. Whereas in some villages the primary forest for jhum cropping occurred as recently
as 11 to 20 years ago. However, in the villages where the research has been conducted, it recorded the
conversion of primary forest which occurred only as an extension of land already within the existing
jhum rotational cycle.
The survey conducted in many villages, showed that the area under jhum had been decreasing. The
survey conducted by the Nagaland Empowerment of People through Economic Development
(NEPED) project, which covered 119 villages in 10 of Nagaland’s 11 districts (excluding Dimapur). In
75 out of 119 villages (67%), the total jhum area was decreasing in 12 villages (12%) it showed an
increase, and in 32 villages (27%) it remained static (Toy, 2015).
The decrease of jhum results in the people to adopt available alternative sources of livelihood, such as
off- farm activities (e.g pig rearing, masonry, wage labour, and (so on), salaried jobs (private and
public), and private enterprises (shop keeping, trading, contract work) and rural urban migration. The
northern districts of Mon, Longleng, Tuensang and Kiphire where increase in the area of jhum was
observed, could be linked to a lower literary rate. The large scale pratice of jhum cultivation in these
areas could also be due to the rules enforced by the village authorities under customary law.
Therefore, it may be safely assumed that any decrease in the forest area in Nagaland is being
compensated by an increase in under fallow re-growth, which eventually leads to permanent secondary
forest. Perhaps the area of land reverting from agricultural use back to forest is greater than that being
converted from primary forest to agriculture (Toy, 2015).

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 Summary
For centuries, indigenous and traditional communities throughout the tropics have used shifting
cultivation for generations as part of a life‐giving, sustainable forest agriculture system. It is proved
that shifting cultivation is often the only way in which the nutrient‐poor rainforest soils can support
crops. It is one of the traditional agricultural system, in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily,
then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation while the cultivators move in to
another plot. It is practiced throughout the tropical and subtropical region of the world. In china, this
practice has become a hot issue and a subject of debate for many scholars from within and outside the
country. There is counter argument stating that Shifting cultivation is mainly effecting the environment
and also disturbs the ecology. In India, the practice is still followed mostly by the tribal communities,
as some suggest that it has some negative effects. Many scholars have showed their interest to study
the problems related to such matters. Notwithstanding the positive effects of shifting cultivation, at the
level of Government and International Financial Institutions, however, management of forests in a
sustainable way through shifting cultivation has yet to be recognized as an environmentally beneficial
form of economic activity.

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